Modern fishing rods often include guides or eyes, which may have relatively small diameters and may be difficult to thread with fishing line by hand. On the other hand, even the most typical guides or eyes, which have average diameters, may be difficult to thread by hand under certain circumstances, for example in poor lighting conditions, in a wind, or on a moving boat.
One relatively simple device to assist with threading fishing lines through the guides or eyes of a fishing rod by hand, involves a bent or crimped wire loop, which may be inserted through the guides or eyes in either a forward direction or in a backward direction and then used to drag fishing line through the guides or eyes in either the same direction or in the opposite direction, respectively. While a bent or crimped wire loop may be more rigid than fishing line, and may provide some assistance with threading fishing lines, by hand, through guides or eyes that have average diameters, it may not provide much assistance, for example, with threading guides or eyes that have relatively small diameters, or in circumstances of poor lighting.
Another device, which has been suggested for threading fishing line through the guides or eyes of a fishing rod is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,447. It involves a star wheel formed of two half sections secured together and rotatably mounted such that radial-projecting confronting surfaces of the mated star wheel half sections near the tips form arcuate grooves in which an arcuate central portion of a rod-like threading member is slidably located between them. The threading member has elongate end portions projecting one on each side of the star wheel and one end is for connecting the fishing line to be threaded by the arcuate threading device. While such an arcuate threading device may also provide some assistance with threading fishing lines through guides or eyes that have average diameters, it too may not provide much assistance with threading guides or eyes that have relatively small diameters, or in circumstances of poor lighting, for example.
To date, potential solutions to such difficult circumstances and or technical difficulties have not been adequately explored.